Are Our Numbers Rising or Falling?

This article is from the March 2005 issue.

By Jenifer Grady, Editor

How should we interpret the statistics we hear? Most of the profession is retiring, there are fewer people going to library school, people of color aren’t going to library school, there are lots of jobs available, there are no jobs available, salaries are low, salaries are adequate? I’m (again) coming to the conclusion that it depends. Where you are (geographically and in your professional life), who you are, what you read and who you are asking are only some of the variables influencing the answers. ALA-APA and Library Worklife will be continue to report, collect, analyze, and question the statistics that we take for granted. I invite your feedback or your own analysis of this and other data.

I received a call last week from an LW reader who wanted to know where the statistics came from that were used in the article I wrote with Tracie Hall called “The World Is Changing: Why Aren’t We? ” about recruitment of people of color to the profession. The statistics from the US Census Bureau revealed a sharp decline in librarianship overall from 1990 to 2000 (-10,656 librarians), and an even greater decline in numbers of librarians of color.

I promised to follow up with additional data, and called Denise Davis, Director of the Office for Research and Statistics. Denise pointed me to an article by Mary Jo Lynch, written in 2004, called “Retirement and Recruitment: A Deeper Look.” Library Worklife will continue to publish articles about how to analyze the statistics about how many of us are entering and leaving the field, but I wanted to point out this article because it illustrates the need to examine even tried-and-true data with the benefit of new information.

Briefly, in the 1990 census, 197,089 people wrote that they were librarians. However, matching librarians with people with masters degrees (although there is no way to say that they were all in library science) whittled the number to 87,409, or less than half. In 2000, the number of masters-degree-holding census-takers who identified themselves as working as librarians had increased to 106,228. That’s a full 21.5 percent increase. So that’s one interpretation for the trend of librarians who are working in the field.

When we look at students in library school, we get a similar mixed impression. The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) reports each year the number of students in ALA-accredited library schools (as well as a host of other statistics about faculty and non-ALA-accredited schools). In the 1991 report of statistics from 1990, all 59 schools participated in the survey and in the 2001 report of statistics from 2000, all 56 schools participated.

We see that although schools closed, there was an increase of 19.12 percent in enrolled students, though the increase is mostly seen in part-time programs. There were 11,020 students enrolled in 1990 and 13,127 in 2000, but there was a 24.13 percent increase in part-time enrollment, compared with a 9.47 percent increase in full-time enrollment. The increase is seen even if full-time equivalents are counted. Enrollment was up for every ethnic group and for both genders, but one must study actual numbers and percentage of total to see that the changes do not approximate the percentage that each group represents in United States society.

There were 484 more masters degrees awarded in 2000 than 1990, a change of 11.02 percent. However, the number of male recipients dropped by 1.33 percent, while the number of women rose 14.91 percent.

When we factor in ethnicity, we see that there was a 61.90% jump for Asian Pacific male librarians awarded degrees, but it was the difference between 21 and 34 men. For White men, the number declined by 59, or 7.40%. The numbers of Black men and women awarded degrees rose 6.90 percent and 98.92 percent respectively, which would be impressive, but we see that Blacks (men and women) represent 2.93 percent of the total masters degrees awarded in 1990 and 4.43 percent in 2000.

Now it’s 2005. What has changed? None of these statistics deny or allay any of the rumors or the concerns that we all should have about the need to improve our numbers on every count, but it does say, at least to me, that we have to be willing to dig deeper to see if additional information or a new perspective is available. And perhaps someday we can answer some of the “why” questions.

The following tables are for ALA-Accredited Library Schools Masters Programs.

Enrollment (numbers and FTEs)

Fall 1990

Fall 2000

% change

Total Enrolled

11,020

13,127

19.12

Total, Full-time

3,769

4,126

9.47

Total, Part-time

7,251

9,001

24.13

Female students, Full-time

2,799

3,051

9.00

Male students, Full-time

970

1,075

10.82

Female students, Part-time

5,941

7,305

22.96

Male students, Part-time

1,310

1,696

29.47

Female students, Part-time (FTEs)

2,635

3,342

26.83

Male students, Part-time (FTEs)

619.63

751

21.20

Enrollment by Ethnicity and Gender

1990

1990

2000

2000

% change

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

American Indian

5

17

21

44

320.00

158.82

Asian Pacific

38

183

64

247

68.42

34.97

African-American

64

270

118

470

84.38

74.07

Hispanic

66

176

111

242

68.18

37.50

White

1682

6613

2011

8051

19.56

21.75

International

89

281

128

288

43.82

2.49

N/A

373

729

318

1014

-14.75

39.09

Total*

2317

8269

2771

10356

Enrollment, Ethnicity by Percent of Total

% 1990
(n=11020)

% 2000
(n=13127)

American Indian

0.20

0.50

Asian Pacific

2.01

2.37

African-American

3.03

4.48

Hispanic

2.20

2.69

White

75.27

76.65

International

3.36

3.17

N/A

10.00

10.15

Total*

96.06

100.00

Degrees and Certificates Awarded

1990

2000

% change

Total

4393

4877

11.02

Men

1054

1040

-1.33

Women

3339

3837

14.91

Degrees and Certificates Awarded by Ethnicity

1990

2000

% change

American Indian

17

14

-17.65

Asian Pacific

90

128

42.22

African-American

122

216

77.05

Hispanic

115

267

132.17

White

3,377

3,576

5.89

International

205

140

-31.71

N/A

232

536

131.03

Total*

4,158

4,877

Degrees and Certificates Awarded

Male

1990

Female

1990

Male

2000

Female

2000

% M

% F

American Indian

4

13

3

11

-25.00

-15.38

Asian Pacific

21

69

34

94

61.90

36.23

African-American

29

93

31

185

6.90

98.92

Hispanic

44

71

42

225

-4.55

216.90

White

797

2580

738

2,838

-7.40

10.00

International

51

154

57

83

11.76

-46.10

N/A

56

176

135

401

141.07

127.84

Total*

1,002

3,156

1,040

3,837

3.79

21.58

4,158

4,877

*Discrepancy between totals by ethnicity and totals by gender noted in source.